PHOENIX — A 2-year-old boy has died after being accidentally shot Wednesday evening at a north Phoenix apartment.
Police say the child was taken to the hospital in critical condition after a shooting near 19th Avenue and Thunderbird Road. The child, Kayden Lewis, later died, police say.
Officials say the child’s father, 29-year-old Joshua Lewis, kept a loaded gun in a location accessible to the child.
According to court paperwork, Lewis and the toddler's mother were lying on the bed playing on the TikTok app when the gun went off.
Lewis initially told officers he did not know if the two-year-old shot himself or if the weapon was fired by a three-year-old child who was also inside the apartment.
He was booked into jail on one count of child abuse recklessness.
ABC15 spoke to witnesses who say they heard the parents of the child run out with him in their arms, screaming for help.
"She had other kids in her arms and she was screaming, 'you go without me and go without me' and I was thinking the hospital but, then I heard sirens because somebody called 911," said one witness.
Another added, "I didn't want to see what was going on, it just upset me so much...it was a child."
During Lewis' initial court appearance Thursday, a judge set his bond at $250,000.
During his initial appearance in court, a judge said he didn’t think that Lewis had ill intent in the incident, but that due to recklessness someone was killed.
The investigation remains ongoing.
